Ortug Outer Point Imperial Checking Station
Arib Sector
1BBY

The line moves slow. Slow slow slow it goes.

You now know the propaganda reel that plays on every screen in the line by heart. "Due to acts of hideous terrorism increased security measures are now in place. These measures are for your protection. We ask that all Imperial citizens for their full cooperation. And to the rebel terrorists hiding amongst the population: We will find you, and we will bring you to justice."

Ahead of you in the line is a ten foot tall serpent creature, hunched to fit under the low ceiling, dressed in fine blue silks and yammering non-stop into a hand-held communicator. Behind you is a formation of sixteen white-robed mystics, waving censers that had to be running low on incense by now. Back and forth along the line patrol the same two stormtroopers. You can hear in the distance the click-clack of the lone Imperial clerk's stamp. The small, plain wall clock is ticking ominously closer and closer to five.

You've been in line for two days now. You're not sure you can handle a third.

"Here's the plan," Merskiv said, scratching her claws on the floor. She was crouched low, feline eyes glinting, tail swishing. "Tomorrow morning I ambush one of the stormtroopers. Snap his neck. Shoot the other one. Two shots, center mass. Take his blaster too. Open fire on the crowd. Guns akimbo. Low spread, full auto, wide angles, maximize casualties. Retreat through the west door. Reload. Storm the guard station. Blow away everyone in the waiting room. Get shot eight times. Stormtrooper comes and prods me with his foot. Hand opens to reveal a thermal detonator. In the confusion, you get to the end of the line and complete your paperwork."

"That's the so-called blaze of glory you will go out on?" Kylia retorts. Amused but short with her counterpart. "A murder suicide, all for.." gesturing at the surrounding "..this?" to go just that little bit faster? Assuming they don't shut it all down. Or I get shot in the process, or detained, or the chimera impounded." She lists sarcastically.

A long sigh staring up at the reel. For the first day, she thought maybe it would eventually change... but that had been proven so so VERY wrong. The same mindless drivel. Over and over. Still, watching it was better than listening to the noise of those around her. Maybe this was how the empire was planning to brainwash people, boring them into submission.

"Listen. We get the paperwork, we get off-world with a legitimate cargo, we meet that stupid bastard for the Imp, and then we are in the clear for a bit, and you can live out your fantasy onboard the Chimera. In bed. In your dreams, ideally, instead of practicing on us." Kylia points up towards the clock when she gets Merskiv's eyes to follow her. "Besides.. the day is almost up already, only say 20 odd minutes till it's shut down and we have to come back tomorrow anyway, so keep your calm. It'll be over one way or the other."

Thankfully, this paperwork was actually all legitimate. Simple stuff, mostly mining machines and a few food goods for some nearby agri-world. The hard stuff comes on the other end, finding enough cargo to hide the rest of the junk the officer had them running. It was a trick as old as time, a little of anything gets missed in giant piles of normacy.

"Twenty minutes," Merskiv's pupils went from slits to gleaming round. "Calculating. As long as this guy doesn't fuck around, we might actually make that. As long as -"

Somebody cut.

Triangular hat. Sixteen eyes - no wait, those are painted on, a halo of eyes all around his skull. A goatee that looked like it had been trimmed with a blaster pistol. A smile with two gold teeth. A suit hooked up with cables and tubes and hissing gasses. Human, somehow, underneath it all, "Don't mind me, loves," he said, opening a wallet that you were sure wasn't his and tucking a fifty credit chip into the front of your shirt. "Just act natural. We're friends, right?"

A doorway suddenly opened and four more Stormtroopers emerged at a jog. Merskiv looked like she was about to commit murder. Talk fast.

A pause with a long blink at the stranger. Who is this maniac? Should I recognize him? Those troopers better not be for him. If they find him, it isn't her problem anyway.

Kaylia leans in close to him so she can whisper in his ear, moving herself to be in front of him in line. "Behind us in line. I'm not losing my karkin spot for this." Being short and blunt with him, and waving Merskiv to follow her in the position-changing dance she forced him into.

Kaylia begins talking somewhat meaningless towards him assuming he plays along, local news, shipping rates, weather complaints, simple, meaningless conversation, while faking a smile at him occasionally at the lighter parts of the conversation. Keeping her volume below that of the loud reptile in front of her so as not to draw attention. She'll gently nudge, then a bit less gently if she continues not to cooperate, Merskiv in the ribs, urging her to follow along. I should have left her back at the ship today, to many annoying days in a row for her impatient ass. Kaylia thinks to herself. Money was money, who knows, maybe we'd get lucky and he'll help us in the future.. somehow. Or at least we can get more from him in the near future.

Another squad of four stormtroopers rush into the room. The first group has started pushing their way through the crowd, shoving citizens up against the wall. The line ahead continues to move with its steady monotony, Imperial clerk continuing to chunk through her stamps without glancing up. The entire situation is starting to feel like the moment after the foot has slipped but before the skull hits the pavement.

"Sweetheart, so many words you're saying, and none of them are your name!" said the man. His accent was unplaceable, liquid and liquored, slipping on the starlight of interstellar translation. His hands were always moving, touching this and that, his goatee, your shoulder, the robes of the squarking mystic behind them. "It's terrible luck to be friends without the exchange of names."
"We're not friends," Merskiv said flatly.
"I do so love to be friends with people with concealed vibroblades," said the outworlder, grinning those gold teeth. "Such a lovely wrist augmentic. It must slide like a dream."
Merskiv's eyes went wide and her ears went flat, reflexively clutching her right arm. You didn't know that about her. Concealed weapons were not legal under the new Imperial regulations.
"Friends, aye?" said the outworlder. He said it with five syllables, more song than word.

"Kaylia, and Merskiv." Putting her hand over her heart, the gesturing to Merskiv with a glare. "Not friends, colleagues. We'd have to know to much about you to be friends. You showed us the way here, and have stuck around past your welcome, but we are.. to polite to tell you to leave." Another glance at Merskiv, making sure she'll play along.

A deep breath before continuing, watching the troopers move around the crowd as she keeps pace with the line, take another step closer to the clerk "And don't touch me, we are not that close. Your name?"

You've been on the bad side of town before. You recognize a pickpocket shimmy when you see it. Those touchy hands, that flexible affection, that constant drunken sway - that's all in service of getting something out of your pocket, and it's not your credits. He's aiming at the far higher risk play of getting your spaceship code lock from your neck. It's a damn fool, or damn desperate thing to do. There's no way he'd get far in it.

"She said back off!" snapped Merskiv, a little too loud, deflecting a particularly bold semi-drunken swipe. One of the stormtroopers notices the commotion and signals to his squad; they start shoving their way though the crowd in unison.

The man smiles - a twitchy, apologetic smile. "Of course. How rude of me." He glanced up, eyes uncanny blue through their thick black mascara. "I am Ruvert. Captain Ruvert." He blinked, like trying to remember the full thing. "Captain Ruvert Thousand-Eyes. Of the Black Reaver." The stormtroopers were coming faster, shouting for people to get down. "Pirate." He scratched his chin, fingers dripping with rings set with rubies. "Space pirate. And for what it's worth, I am dreadfully sorry for what's about to happen."

"You're even stupider than I thought." Kaylia glares at him. She's fairly protective of the Chimera; it's more like her home than anything else, and more importantly, it is her father's ship. The scums' attempt to take it really ticked her off, more than his touching or Merskivs.. stupidity in her weapon choice, at least at the moment. Merskiv will get an earful later; he gets one now.

Kaylia will lean in close, her eyes alight with anger, keeping her voice low as the troopers approach. "Play along, or play dead. She's been itching to explode anyway, and I love putting bolts in people who mess with my ship." She'll tilt her head towards Merskiv first, then flashes her blaster at him, obscured just under her coat. Completely legal for her to carry, and she had the paperwork in order under her legal name and everything, but an active threat nonetheless. "Shut your hole. Use my story, play the annoying guide."

"You too, play along, or keep quieter." Looking at Merskiv, before trying to put back on a neutrally annoyed face towards the pirate.

"Hey! Its fine he just wanted to see Merskiv!" Faking calming down her friend after her outburst. "Looks like we are getting close to the front, finally! Thanks for your help getting her. It was a bit confusing." Kaylia starts as if she hadn't just threatened his life. With any luck, the troopers would just ignore us. She'll glare at him if there is any real hesitation in his uptake.

You As you glare into those eyes you feel the structure of a plan. You feel it melt before you, dissipating into the air like a morning dew. The space pirate captain takes his ring-encrusted hands out of his pockets empty, holding them up in a gesture of surrender and obedience, even as the Stormtroopers shove aside the last of the cultists standing behind him.

"You there," one of them said to you, levelling a blaster, voice distorted through their helmet. "Let's see some ID."

"Sure, one second." Kaylia will, as calmly as one can with a blaster in their face, grab her ID papers and hand them to the trooper as ordered. Her thought was to be cooperative, and they may just keep looking elsewhere, and by all legality, she was allowed to be here, and her papers were all in order.

"Is everything alright? You guys sure came here in a hurry?" Playing the part of a concerned citizen as the trooper views her documentation. She doesn't really care about his response; hell, it's fairly likely she doesn't even get one. It's all about presenting a sense of normality to the trooper.

"Shut your mouth," blared the Stormtrooper, scanning the ID. He takes Merskiv's too but doesn't return either of them. Pirate Captain Ruvert keeps his back turned to them but you can feel the lazy tension from him. You've seen standoffs before, and despite his hands being visible you sense that he's more ready to kill than the trooper with the raised blaster.

"You there! Where's your ID?" said the stormtrooper, reaching out to shove his shoulder too.

Kaylia stays cheerful and mostly cooperative when she is yelled at, acting the hurt girl more than anything, but otherwise following along with the trooper's orders, watching to make sure Merskiv does as well.

Staring at her new... compatriot? Nuisance? Shes not sure what to make of him yet, beyond her relative hatred towards his stealing attempt... he seemed somewhat competent. Her hand slowly drifts to her blaster, or at least her waist where it is, worried he might try something stupid, and she really would be forced to blast their way out of here.